Upgrading FM-only car radios is DAB’s biggest hurdle

Both a leading radio manufacturer and Ford Ennals, the chief executive of
Digital Radio UK, have agreed that the upgrading of FM-only car radios is
the biggest hurdle to full digital switchover being completed by 2015. But
what is the solution and is it the main hurdle to full migration?

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Owen Watters, the sales and marketing director of Roberts Radio, believes that the single biggest barrier to conversion is converting car radios in the 33 million vehicles which have FM only radios.

Ennals also recognises that this as the radio industry’s biggest problem on the issue of digital switchover. “Lots of factors have to be in place for digital switchover to happen – new content, better coverage and for the majority of radio listening to be conducted digitally. However, I think the reason which could stop us making the Government’s provisional timetable is not finding a cheap and easy solution which allows older cars to upgrade their radios.”

The current Government ambition is for digital migration to happen by 2015, as laid out in the Digital Economy bill, first published in 2009. However, with DAB only accounting for 16 per cent of total radio listening and coverage not yet at the same as FM, many are sceptical that full digital migration can be a reality any time before 2020.

Ennals says that chip manufacturers are working on a neat and affordable solution to help people upgrade their FM car radios but there are no more details at this stage.

However, the other major barrier remains: dearth of unique content. Unlike digital TV, there are no where near as many DAB-only stations making switchover as compelling.

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Ennals combats this issue impressively, talking about major brands, such as Capital, which have used DAB to get into markets they have never been before, such as Liverpool But he also admits that more stations need to follow Absolute Radio’s example, which has launched three DAB-only stations in the last year.

Coverage has also yet to reach FM standards, but an announcement from the Government is expected next month, which will set out the plan for the transmitter upgrade.

Despite what seems like a joined up approach to tackle coverage issues, consumer uptake, content shortages and old car radios, there is still little tangible progress to speak of right now on the road to full digital migration.

But that’s not to say it will not happen and that it should not happen. It would be odd to leave radio as the only media working on analogue. It deserves the same digital transformation as TV. It just might take longer than the Digital Economy Bill laid out and Watters is right to remind people that following the launch of FM, it took more than 20 years to become the mainstream radio format.